Category Archives: Business/Economics

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

Idiot! CNN commentator says $14 billion loss for U.S. taxpayers is a good thing

Some idiot at CNN called the huge billion dollar car maker bailout loss for U.S. taxpayers “Excellent!”.

He justifies his statement by saying it’s better than the originally projected loss of $40 billion.  What this idiot doesn’t seem to realize is that most taxpayers were against the bailouts, because they knew they would lose.

In total, between Chrysler and GM, the U.S. taxpayers lost $14 billion dollars in the auto maker bailout joke.  But this guy at CNN thinks it’s great, calling it “…a mere $14 billion”.

The idiot goes on to claim that the U.S. government (taxpayers) would have lost huge tax revenues if Chrysler and GM went out of business.  Hello, most of their sales are now outside the U.S., which means they’re not paying U.S. taxes on those sales.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Canadian taxpayers lose $810 million to Chrysler, Unions say it could threaten factories

Just like the U.S. government, the Canadian government has sold its shares of Chrysler stock to Fiat, at a loss.

Canada bailed out Chrysler’s operations in Canada, and it cost the Canadian taxpayers $810 million.

Canadian autoworkers union officials say their government should have held on to the stock a little longer, as a way of making sure Chrysler/Fiat doesn’t shut down the Canadian operations: “We’ve advocated all along for the Ontario and Canadian governments to retain those shares as leverage, to retain investment in Canada, but that decision wasn’t made and now we have to trust that Chrysler and Fiat will recognize the incredible contributions Canadian workers, and Canadian plants, have made in the turnaround of this company.”-Ken Lewenza, union rep

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

No Economic Recovery for U.S.: China offers U.S. college students free education

“We hope the scholarships will encourage American students to delve into China studies and other subjects in China in earnest.”-Zhang Jin, education exchange program

China’s Ministry of Education is ready to offer full university scholarships to  students from the United States.  The program actually started last year, and was officially announced in April of this year.

China has a plan to attract 500,000 foreign students to its universities by 2020.  The plan also supports U.S. President Obama’s desire to send 100,000 U.S. students to China (so much for Obama’s support of U.S. higher education).

If you want to check out the full scholarship go to www.studyinchina.edu.cn , click on “english” to get the English version of the site.

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Weekly first time unemployment claims go up, “experts” surprised (again), unemployment really at 20%

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that first time state unemployment claims jumped by 10,000, to 418,000.  The numbers are for the week ending July 16.

The previous week’s drop in first time claims is due to the shortened work week (July 4 holiday).  That means it’s very likely that the first week of July could have seen an increase in unemployment as well.

Once again, many “expert” employment annalists did not expect such a large increase in unemployment claims, for the week ending July 16.

The latest weekly first time unemployment claims numbers, continues a trend, now 15 weeks on.  15 weeks in a row that first time unemployment claims is above 400,000.

The current official unemployment rate is 9.2%.  If our government was using the same unemployment rating system that was used during the time Bill Clinton was President, then official unemployment would be at 20%!

 

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

Government Incompetence: U.S. taxpayers lose $1.3 billion to Chrysler

So what about all the noise about Chrysler supposedly paying off its bailout loan?  In the end the U.S. taxpayers lost $1.3 billion.

The pay off was in the form of stock buy back.  The United States government sold its remaining shares of Chrysler stock to Fiat.  The result was a net loss for U.S. taxpayers.  The U.S. Department of Treasury called it a “major accomplishment”!

Maybe if the federal government wasn’t so busy bailing out banks and corporations (along with its increasing war budget) it wouldn’t be in so much financial trouble right now.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

No Economic Recovery for U.S.: Apple profits way up, it’s all about China, baby!

Apple Incorporated posted a huge 124% year to year profit, for the second quarter of 2011.  But most of those sales weren’t made in the United States.

Chinese consumers are going nuts for Apple products.  In fact, Apple’s 2011 sales in China are, so far, six times what they were in 2010.

Two reasons for Apple’s exploding sales in China: One is that scalpers were buying up everything in the stores, creating a shortage (and of course selling Apple products for much more).  The second reason is that Apple Inc is investing big time into China: “In the long run, Apple can likely increase its market share since it is gaining sales momentum by investing more resources into China, which it had not been doing previously.”-Kitty Fok, IDC Asia-Pacific.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. corporations put the brakes on investing into China, no money to invest

“Under such circumstances, both private U.S. companies and governments in different levels are not capable of investing significantly in China. Somehow they are looking for the investment from China to help them boost their own economies and low-employment rate.”-Zhang Qizuo, economist Chengdu University

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce says investments coming from the United States are way down, compared to last year.  It’s a sign of how bad the U.S. economy is, and the growing discontentment with U.S. citizens in seeing U.S. jobs go to China.

“Large-scale U.S. companies are also under domestic pressure in ‘giving jobs to Chinese’, therefore, they have to consider the feelings of approximately 14 million Americans and deliberately delay or even cut some investment plans in China.”-Zhang Shiqing, economist Nankai University

Overall U.S. investments in China dropped from January of last year, to June of this year, by a big 22.32%.  That’s a big drop, but in dollar amounts, the U.S. still invested $1.68 billion.

European countries, and other Asian countries, are still on the plus side of investing into China.

Another factor in the drop in U.S. investments is inflation in China, which includes the cost of labor.  Labor cost are going up in China, and in the U.S. labor costs are going down, no thanks to Union busting and high unemployment.

I can’t think that this is helping cut unemployment in the United States, after all there has been no change in the overall unemployment situation, even though there’s been a 22.32% drop in investments into China.  Despite what Chinese economist think, I think the real reason is that U.S. corporations, and government, have put the brakes on investing into China, is because they’re out of money to invest.

Business/Economics, International

What Economic Recovery? Chinese Housing Bubble about to explode: Property Loans halted

“You’d better prepare to pay 40% of your home price as down payment, because commercial banks are going to ask more for a property loan.”-Gong Hang, bank official

First the Chinese government created a new income tax schedule that meant more people were excused from paying taxes, but left them potentially unable to buy a home (due to not having the required tax documents).  Then they ordered down payments to be increased, or mortgage interest rates must be increased (some banks did both).  Now, banks are just flat refusing to issue anymore property loans.

In what’s called 2nd and 3rd tier cities, in China, banks are refusing to issue anymore loans for property: “We will not accept property loan applications at present, even if it is from a first-time home buyer.”-unnamed bank official

If you think paying 40% down on a home is outrageous, wait ’till you read this: 40% down is for first time home buyers, if you’re buying a home for the second time Chinese banks now want 50-60% down.

Bank officials say it’s because the Chinese government ordered banks to hold onto their money, by not lending it out.  This is an attempt to control inflation, which Chinese officials are fearing could get out of control.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Rupert Murdoch scandal hits the stock market, Dow Jones boss quits, FBI investigating possible phone hacks in the United States

One reason why the mainstream media is so into reporting the stock market; Rupert Murdoch owns the stock reporting company Dow Jones.  Tonight, July 15 U.S. time, the CEO of the Dow Jones quit.

Les Hinton, the boss of Murdoch’s Dow Jones & Co stepped down, as the British phone hacking scandal surrounding Murdoch’s News Corp spread to the United States.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now looking into similar acts here in the U.S.

Already the CEO of Murdoch’s News International, Rebekah Brooks, resigned.  Brooks was also the editor of the News of the World, the newspaper implicated in the scandal.

More and more British media outlets, owned by Murdoch, are being implicated for the same thing; phone hacking and bribing police and politicians for confidential information.  Murdoch’s News Corp controls a multitude of media outlets around the world, and he controls the Dow Jones.

Why did Les Hinton, the boss of the Dow Jones, quit?  It could be because he used to be the chairman of Murdoch’s News International, when all the alleged criminal acts took place.

British media has reported that Rebekah Brooks made an unofficial statement to employees of the News of the World, that things are going to get only worse, as more information about the goings on inside Murdoch’s News Corp are revealed.

A U.S. corporate governance analysts said the same thing, only officially: “There is going to be a constant drip, drip, drip of more information coming out that is simply going to get worse and worse.”-Nell Minow, GovernanceMetrics